Court upholds 10-year jail term for Chautala, son

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday upheld a 10-year jail term for former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala and his son Ajay Chautala in the 2000 illegal teacher recruitment scam in the state.

Justice Siddharth Mridul said O.P. Chautala being the chief minister of Haryana at that time was “more responsible” for the scam.

The court also upheld 10 years jail term for three others – O.P. Chautala’s political advisor Sher Singh Badshami, his former OSD Vidya Dhar, and the former Haryana director of primary education Sanjeev Kumar.

It dismissed all the 55 appeals filed by the accused against the sentencing order by the trial court.

Out of total 55 accused, Justice Mridul, while upholding 10 years jail term for five accused, also reduced the jail term of other 50 accused to two years.

A special Central Bureau of Investigation court here on January 22, 2013 had sentenced the Chautalas and eight others to 10 years in jail after finding them guilty of illegally recruiting 3,206 junior basic trained teachers in 2000.

One convict was sentenced to five years in jail, while 44 others were handed out four-year jail term each in the case.

All the convicts were held guilty of cheating, forgery, using fake documents as genuine, conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code and for abusing their official position under the Prevention of Corruption Act.